Joao Palhinha offers Man Utd a midfield compromise they shouldn’t have to make | OneFootball

Here we are, a mere fortnight away from Manchester United kidding us on that there was no defensive midfielder available this summer who could improve Michael Carrick’s options for a price worth paying.

Which, of course, is horse sh*t. But, unless the Red Devils have another surprise up their sleeves, brace yourselves for the inevitable briefing as United prepare to enter another Premier League campaign without the necessary reinforcements to fulfil their ambitions.

That may sound a tad pessimistic with two weeks remaining but such scepticism is borne of too many unsatisfying United windows.

This time, there is some mitigation. United’s biggest summer for some time just so happened to coincide with the window where the transfer market lost its damn mind.

With INEOS and the Glazers at the wheel, United won’t pay the funds necessary to land the top targets this summer. They shouldn’t be financially overpowered so often or so comprehensively by their Big Six rivals but it is just now the accepted norm.

If United are to get the type of midfielder Carrick so badly needs between now and September 1, it will almost certainly involve compromise. In this case, whatever United might suggest on September 2, that’s better than nothing.

United won’t make concessions on cost if they are quoted huge fees; nor can they they settle for sub-standard or unripen quality. So the compromise may have to be found in the profile of any new recruit.

Ideally, the Red Devils want young but Prem-proven talent – but so does everyone else. Which is why £100million seems to have become the standard starting point in negotiations for such players.

But if United are willing to forego longevity, then Joao Palhinha suddenly becomes a lot more attractive as the deadline approaches.

So he should. The Portugal midfielder was one of the few who emerged with any credit from Tottenham Hotspur’s wretched season.

If skirting so close to the Championship had not prompted Spurs to finally put on their big boy transfer pants, then Palhinha, most probably, would be back in north London this season.

He has the Premier League experience United covet; he still gobbles up space like a midfielder in his mid-20s; the Red Devils just have to come to terms with Palhinha being a medium-term fix, rather than the long-term asset they are too hesitant to heavily invest in anyway.

The ex-Fulham star recently turned 31. He’s around six months older than Casemiro when United paid £60million for the Real Madrid star.

Palhinha would require nothing like the outlay, on fee or wages. His Bayern Munich salary is reportedly half that amount United shed from their wage bill this summer when Casemiro was waved off, and the Bavarians are asking for around £25million.

Bayern can certainly be talked down from there – their sporting director Max Eberl admitted as much when he said that at this point in the window, they would consider a hefty loan fee, if United want to buy themselves another year to confront a problem they knew for a long time was coming this summer.

Aston Villa and Newcastle have acted on their interest in Palhinha: Villa held fire while Bayern sought a permanent deal; while Newcastle, from a position of far less authority, are understandably more willing to meet Bayern’s preferred terms having missed out on many of their other targets.

United haven’t always been a more attractive proposition than Newcastle of late – but they certainly are this summer if they wanted to make a move on Palhinha.

Of course, he’s not the long-term answer to United’s problems. But Palhinha is a palatable compromise if the alternative is INEOS inaction.